Author Notes: It starts off with how Orihime got here and it leads to what everyone has been waiting for- Ichigo vs Kenpachi.
If these recent chapters have been lower quality than the earlier ones, I'm sorry- its to establish that Bleach in my AU fanfic has a larger world building than what the original manga lacked to its detriment. For my choice, I've decided to give Yoruichi- a take on Zommari's basic powers to suit her theme while he gets his own unique Resurreccion variant of these powers when the time comes for his fight later on in the fanfic.
Chapter 31: Eternal Halcyon
The Urahara Shop- Platform Room
Yoruichi had released her Bankai to face Orihime's new powers in an eerie black Spiritual Pressure. The umbra colored gust dissipated to reveal Yoruichi's Bankai form- Norowareta Kuro no Utsukushi-sa (Cursed Black Beauty).
She now wore a black, billowing kimono with a golden obi sash worn elegantly in comparison to her nature, a purple nagajuban underneath the kimono the ends had golden cat patterns with the Kanji 呪い written on the shoulder parts of the arm sleeves, her hair was now worn in a tight Shimada hairstyle tied with two gold pin shaped like cat tails and gold colored geta sandals with black tabi socks. On her back was a folded black fan that was a large as herself. Overall, she resembled a dark grabbed geisha with an elegant grace that seemed creepy and eerie.
"I don't like what my Bankai does to me, making me both beautiful...and ugly at the same time. I personally like to beat up people with my own hands- it goes against what I was back in the Soul Society when I was a Captain. So I kept it hidden unless there was no other choice...the choice to make someone reach their limits and surpass me.," she said with a sophisticated grace that contrasted with her usual blunt and tomboyish self. She unfolded her fan to reveal that it had an odd eye pattern on its nine sections- they were positioned vertically with gold iris with tiny slit like black pupils that darted in all directions.
"And personally, its power is absolutely revolting.," she added as one of the eyes stopped darting around to look at Orihime's left shoulder. Its pupil dilated to a large size that almost encompassed the entire "eye" as it gave a glare towards the object it saw, a black lightning bolt jettisoned out of A black three claw mark appeared on Orihime's left shoulder. Suddenly, the shoulder twisted in an painful and unnatural contortion like a gnarled caused the avian minded girl to screech in pain as black static shot out of the limb.
"It sends black electric currents to make the the body that causes the targets's nerves to malfunction at an accelerated rate, making the body reactions to act in a way that would normally seem impossible- like rotating the limbs in a way that they're never supposed to. Eventually, the electrical signal short-circuit...as the target dies...since you're now conscious- we can stop now before you get hurt.," Yoruichi explained to Orihime with a tone of disgust for what she was doing.
"I-," Orihime tried to respond, but was interjected by a voice in her head.
"Orihime...listen to what I have to say...and make sure you follow it to the letter...," Shun'ro's voice spoke in Orihime's mind. She quietly nodded in response for what her Shun Shun Rika was about to say with a tone of remorse.
"You're going to die now, but once you do...you'll be more powerful than you'd ever be on your own."
"What?," Orihime asked with a startled need for clarification as she noticed that Yoruichi's weapon was acting on its own accord, forcing the former 2nd Captain to feed it some of her golden Spiritual Power into the giant fan.
"Tch, and I don't even have control over this thing...Shit!," Yoruchi cursed under her breath as Orihime looked on with terror for what was about to happen.
The rest of the eyes darted at different parts of the orange haired girl's body and releasing lightning bolts towards different parts of Orihime's body. Each shock caused the sections to bend in horrific ways. The silhouette of the girl was distorted until it was spiral shaped mess, which then fell to the ground...very close to dying.
Orihime slowly closed her now glazed eyes, regretting that she couldn't do what her powers asked of her as she internally said to herself-
"I'm sorry that I couldn't live up to your expectations..."
Yoruichi looked with regret as she turned around to the area that would lead to the room's exit.
Hachigen can heal if I call him over in time. It looks like she wasn't ready for the training after all..., Yoruichi thought as she leaped to the nearest platform near the exit. Orihime's voice then spoke-
A heartbeat thumped from Orihime's chest.
"Wait a minute...I'm being selfish deciding that I'm going to just die here...I have to go to where Chad is...he's in danger."
"If its about where he is. Some people I know are taking care of- huh?," Yoruichi told Orihime with a cool head until she realized that it wouldn't be possible for the girl to speak due to her horrid condition. She looked behind her with widened eyes, an orange, circular shaped aura formed around the girl who rose up until she was floating in the air. The space began to distort around her.
Orihime's form rose and reshaped itself back to its original body structure. Eight sets of simple, arched wings made of orange Spiritual Pressure emerged from her back. Her clothing altered into a pink kimono with an orange obi sash that was worn loosely to reveal her bosom and midriff. In addition to this, she had a hakama that matched the kimono's color with white tabi socks with simple Waraji sandals of brown straw like Spiritual Particles. On her head was a six pointed star with a halo surrounding it. Her gray eyes now had an eight ripple gray/black circle pattern with with a series of eight black dots arranged around the the second ripple. Her elegant, winged mask had already formed over her face, obscuring what the girl's face now looked like.
What are you Orihime?, Yoruichi thought to herself as she observed the girl's new form. It seemed as though she had evaluated to a higher plane of existence.
"There's another that's hiding his presence- I don't know if they can beat him, it feels like its ancient, like a monster made of wildfire controlled by a young man with a heart of ice.," the divine looking girl spoke in an ethereal tone.
"What are-," the dark haired woman replied to Orihime's statement, confused at her current demeanor that contrasted with her usual more cheerful tone.
"Wait...there's still another, its even larger than the one hiding himself- its like its a black hole, but fare more reasonable than the one that controls the wildfire.." Orihime continued in a cryptic tone.
"I don't sense what you're talking about.," Yourichi replied with confusion to what she meant.
"I have to stop them before they try to kill him and everyone else that's there.," Orihime spoke again as she prepared a battle stance with her open palms raised.
Instinctively, Yoruichi raised her fan, twirled it to the other side to restrain Orihime, but instead, something else occurred. She was hit by a palm strike so strong that it knocked the wind out of her, causing the dark skinned woman to go unconscious from the powerful strike. The speed from the thrusted palm was so swift that it somehow caused Orihime while still touching the former 2nd Captain to move faster than the speed of light outside of the room and into a dimension of orange color with yellow flashes of light heading towards a white passageway at the far end of the space. Orihime sped through the space and entered the other side of the white passageway- in a grassland covered in darkness.
Orihime then saw a black substance about to strike a group of people wearing garbs similar to Rukia, she instinctively said the name of this winged form and emitted a light that caused the darkness to be rejected.
"Is that Orihime? Um, well does she have wings and a halo? Is that a Hollow mask too?," Isshin asked himself in bewilderment as he second guessed what he saw that had suddenly manifested in the grassland.
"Interesting- a new Visored subspecies with wings.," Mayuri said to himself with his pupils altered into a lucid oval shape as he became fascinated with the winged girl with the mask that had seemingly materialized into the grassland from out of nowhere.
"Huh? why do I feel the masked fighter's Spiritual Pressure from this girl? Fuck if I know the reason.," Kenpachi said to himself as he put his eyepatch back on to seal his massive Spiritual Pressure. Hao smirked as he looked down at the girl.
"Oh my gosh. Why am I dressed like this? Do I have wings on my back? Why is Ms. Yoruichi unconscious? Where am I- this isn't the training room! Who are these people? Are they after Ichigo? My gosh! This is really confusing!," Orihime asked herself in a really fast paced sentence, wondering about the events that happened to her and her current location. This contrasted with the very simple and elegant mask she was wearing and her ethereal sounding voice.
Aside from a grouchy Tenjiro, the Royal Guard were very bemused by the girl acting shocked at her powers as their observation.
"Oh, it's Ichigo's dad. Um, hello there. I'm a student in your son's class- Orihime Inoue. I'm not sure if we've been properly introduced at this point. I...got really close with your son last night...why are you dressed like Ichigo and Rukia?," Orihime asked Isshin as she turned around to look at the former 10th Captain. She touched her stomach in the middle of her sentence as her mask blushed longingly, it was this statement that made Isshin to be filled with blue colored dread as he imagined something very private that she had done to Ichigo when they were alone.
"Tch. I was planning to tell him eventually, but he's a Soul Reaper...because I'm was one before I decided to marry his mother ...in fact, before I left I was actually the 2nd-," Isshin replied with his arms crossed, his eyes closed and giving a smug grin. He reopened them to see that the high school student was pulling the four Ghost-Busters from the ground with the tips of her first set of wings. This caused him to look to the side with an annoyed expression.
"Had a dream...turned into a whack a mole by a pirate sword-man with an eyepatch. Then an angel picks me up. Banzai.," Pitter said in a non-sequitur daze in American pronunciation as he was placed on the ground gently by Orihime who proceeded to repeat the action with the other three.
"Seems to be a Class VII entity...I wonder if she belongs to any of the angelic hierarchies in the Tobin's Spirit Guide.," said Rayge in a curious tone
"I think we can analyze the samples from this contact from her wings... and decide whether or not to capture her if she's hostile.," Eugene replied in an analytical tone that caught Orihime's attention.
"Um, Misters...I think it depends on whether or not you are bad people who want to hurt my friends.," Orihime said in very bad English after observing Pitter was likely American like the rest of them from how he spoke. While her tone was sincerely that of hidden fury, her words made it sound ridiculous.
"So she's able to speak...I'll say this, one of your friends is going to release an evil side of himself that might threaten the planet as a whole..," Winliser told Orihime in Japanese due to him overhearing it while underground. His tone was serious and no-nonsense.
"Oh my gosh! Is Ichigo going to become a Hollow again even after what I did to him last night?," Orihime responded with shock and a blushed expression of embarrassment. Her hands clasped around her face as she squealed with both surprise and hidden pleasure of what she did that caught Isshin's attention. The Ghost-Busters were equally as shocked by what she just spoke.
"That needs context. What you said needs context. Sounds like you-.," Pitter tried to inquire further as he came to his senses with a tone of worried concern about what Origime had implied by that statement. Suddenly, a hostile presence was felt as the 12th Captain rose his purple colored Spiritual Pressure.
"Samples?...the only samples that will be collected will be from when I manage to decipher your equipment. Followed by analyzing the woman down to the bone- if necessary, revive her to repeat the process.," Mayuri spoke with his face figuratively blackened like a shadow with only his teeth and eyes glowing. He positioned his left arm straight at Orihime with a malicious grin.
"Jabarakaina (Snake Belly Arm).," the 12th Captain declared as his arm extended like a grappling hook with segmented separations connected by a long, thick cable. It reached Orihime's neck as he pulled her towards him. Isshin was about to retaliate until he noticed something phenomenal like everyone else aside from Hao and the Ghost-Busters who seemed to more aware of what was happening to the burnt orange haired girl.
Orihime's form manifested a copy for Mayuri to grab instead of herself as the arm retracted backwards until it was back to its original length. Mayuri tossed her over his shoulder, but looked twice while blinking in bafflement to the paradoxical sight he was seeing, there was now two Orihimes instead of one now.
"A cloning process...Fascinating. It'll be a worthy finding once I dissect this one at the lab.," Mayuri spoke to himself until he noticed that Hao had vanished from the sky from where he fighting Kenpachi.
"How like man to want to defile everything he doesn't know fully- even if it's sacred and holy. How small."
Hao, now sitting on the right shoulder had re-manifested the Great Spirit of Fire as the red, antlered giant it was previously, had appeared behind Mayuri to the latter's shock. While grinning with a narrowed, white iris eyed smile, he wordlessly commanded his Spirit to strike Hao with one of its sharp claws and toothy maw open.
The odd hat wearing scientist then said something silently to Hao that made him pause his assault for some reason.
"Tch, Mayuri, he took my opponent's attention away from me...or is it- that I'm not worthy that ancient brat's time anymore!," Kenpachi shouted as he tried to lunge after Hao
Isshin was about to utter something until he saw something beyond belief. This sight also caused Kenpachi to halt his actions.
Pitter with a lazy, yet more serious expression had somehow managed to pop up in front of Hao without him noticing his movement and punched him in the gut; the force itself creating a green whirlwind from the back of the boy that went into the sky. He became unconscious as the Great Spirit of Fire dematerialized its form from its master's lack of concentration. He reappeared in front of Isshin with Hao hung over his left shoulder as he spoke this in a slightly more serious, but still casual tone-
"Hao come man, you know your parole required you to never kill anything aside from Preta, Yokai or Daemons if you ever saw them up to no good. NO SRs, DGs or AODs, we have enough trouble as it is with you in our ranks."
"Tch, pretending that you were weak when you could pull crap like that.," Kenpachi scoffed in frustration as he looked on.
"A meager yet high paying job my ass! You don't just wham a man that forced Kenpachi to temporally get serious by just whamming him in the gut. And not just whammed him, you used a high level of Bringer Light that Ginjo could only dream of to get past that heart reading crap he the hell are you Dr. Vonk?," Isshin evaluated the Ghost-Buster's swift actions.
"Meager is a term of perspective, Dr. Kurosaki. Man do seats 2-10 have the easy life- living it up in as quadrillionares and sometimes making the President himself to do what they want for God's Sake! While we're busting our butts off every day. And I have to do the paper work once its all done. Being the 13th Seat in the 26th Division is an absolute nightmare! If I didn't love my job, I'd be high-tailing it outta of there and doing a simple job like you're doing now.," Pitter replied in a casual tone of snark as he scratched the back of his head with his left hand.
"You're definitely more dedicated to your work than I ever was...13th seat? Are the others-?!," Isshin asked the balding man with the beige uniform with a tone of surprise.
"No, its just him who's got to do the heavy paperwork. Not that it says anything less about us- its just that we're on the same level and Pitter won at Rock-Paper-Scissors, so he got the position. Boy, does he regret it.," Rayge responded with a spontaneous pitch of repressed humor towards an irked Pitter.
"Makes sense...," Isshin remarked with a dry sense of sarcasm as he summoned the power of Engetsu once more.
"That's only true in a perfect world. Sometimes, you're as strong as you look...Captain Blaise certainly is.," Pitter replied with a dark shadow on his face as his blaster glowed with a bright green color.
The two then stopped when they felt a subtle, but powerful Spiritual Pressure had just manifested in the area, or rather, it had decided to finally come down onto the earth.
Mayuri then noticed that the second "Orihime" he was holding was gone from his held grasp without his knowledge. She was now suspended in a purple sphere that went back into Orihime's body. The winged girl then noticed a large man behind her who had performed this feat.
Kenpachi abruptly decided to head down to the ground to see this new eyepatch wearing giant saw he himself only came up to the tall fellow's waist. Ichibe and Senjumaru stared in fright at this helmet colossus while the other three were just as startled, though no to the extent of their colleagues.
I couldn't even see him move when he just appeared in this area! So even Captain Infinitias is involved in this matter., Ichibe internally concluded as he observed the purple robed and white admiral over-coated individual with the barbute helmet.
Orihime looked up to him and timidly asked the stern elder, "Um, h-hello there sir. Are you an astronaut wizard or something? Because I sensed you all the way up in space...or may you're an alien instead?"
The helmet adorned sage said nothing at first, but slowly started to speak to the onlookers' shock
"Thou giveth a doppelgänger to appease the impudent non-believer of the scientific faith in order to quell the possible conflict between him and those that would protect thee from his dealings...since it would a bother to thine lover's concentration.," said the ancient bearded man in a mysterious and foreboding tone as he observed the winged girl with a narrow purple iris eyed gaze.
"I don't know about those kinds of things. It just came to me that I shouldn't go with that man yet and I still want to be with Ichigo, but I knew that either way would lead to trouble...so I compromised and this copy came out for some reason.," the girl replied meekly as she stared into the helmet of the towering wizard like fellow.
The helmet wearing individual waved his hand, summoning four spheres with lime outlines around the Ghost-Busters and Hao as they levitated in the area. He then snapped his fingers and Chad appeared on the grassland to everyone's surprise. Infinitas then looked down towards Orihime
"It seems as thou art the Half Nephillim's keeper. Know this, we were consider this truce...once he returns from his cultivation...we will resume our attempts to dispose of him and his kin when seven days hath passed.," the man informed the girl in an ominous tone as he slowly levitated off the ground and into the sky above as the Bringer Light under his soles of his shoed feet glowed with an ominous dark green light. The sphere came towards the wizard like person as they hovered around him like four planetary objects.
Orihime was about to speak against this grim course of action until an annoyed Kenpachi then decided to interject to the giant wizard like being with his sword pointed at his general direction.
"Don't go aw yet! We were in the middle of a death-match! Or do you want to come at me instead?," Kenpachi told the man as he raised his sword towards the elderly giant with a grimace of irrigation.
As a quite response, the helmeted giant manifested ten sets of wings similar to Orihime and a Halo with a twenty pointed star in the middle, both royal purple in color to everyone's astonishment. The enormous Spiritual Pressure caused the entire group to fall to the ground from the intense tension coming from the winged form. The next instant, he and the four spheres holding the five individuals teleported out of sight in a flash of green light with this severe thought in mind-
"I sense only four are genuine- so the onmyouji has decided to act on his own for his petty vengeance."
"Oh ho ho ho! I was about to consider the woman to be one of my lab subjects, but these Full-Bringers are fascinating to use wings and halo...like a Quincy would...the Royal Guard were also overwhelmed by this Spiritual Pressure I see. I assume your business is done here, correct?," Mayuri said initially with delight, slowed down and then interrogated the five individuals who he now just noticed on the ground with them.
"Well, it seems our hunt for the above Vasto Lorde being turned into a huge complication with the World's Sword. I should tell you all this- if you are friends with that Quincy group...know that you'll hopelessly outmatched if you face them.," Ichibe told the group as he summoned the Kanji 家 to teleport the five Guard members away from the grassland. Isshin was left baffled and somewhat annoyed that they didn't bother to clarify who that helmet wearing person was. Mayuri was lost in his thoughts while Kenpachi sighed in annoyance.
"What happened while I was unconscious? Where's Ginjo and his three followers? Why is Ichigo's dad wearing clothes like Ichigo? And why are there two men who also wear the same thing as Ichigo except with white coats over them?...I'm sorry, I'm usually have a lot less words to say.," Chad asked in a faster pace than he usually said, which meant a great deal since he hardly ever spoke at all.
"...Well, it seems like both you and Orihime have become a lot stronger than yesterday- I barely recognize you as you are now. I better head back to Yuzu, Karin and my son before they spot the difference between me and Alfred.," the former 10th Captain spoke as he prepared to leave until Kenpachi stepped in front of Orihime with a feral grin as he looked down toward her with a green iris glare.
"You know where the masked fighter is right? Take me to him...I wanna fight him now that those Full-Bringers decided to do something else.," the eyepatch wearing Captain asked the girl with an elated tone, towering over her, though not to the extent that the helmet wearing individual had done.
"I think he's too busy to-," Isshin attempted to persuade him away from a likely fight to the death. that Zaraki would almost certainly give him. Orihime turned to Isshin with a look of determination in her eyes to his shock.
"May you please take care of Ms. Yoruichi...I feel Ichigo needs to fight this person to become stronger right now.," She said with conviction in her voice as she tugged the 11th Captain's black kimono sleeve.
"Wait, I think you'd better reconsider-," Isshin begged Orihime to reconsider once he realized that she intended to use the same teleportation technique that she had arrived in the grassland, know to head towards Ichigo bringing along Kenpachi Zaraki.
With a closed eyed smile of certainty, Orihime then vanished along with the large man in a flash of orange light. Mayuri then spoke with a rather unexpected response of clarification for why the winged girl had taken Kenpachi with her to the baffled Chad and Isshin.
"It's that pesky emotion called love correct? It drives her to push this future spouse of hers to become stronger because she knows his desires for power better than anyone else. Former Captain Kirio would be more explicit on this trivial matter than I would be."
Isshin looked dumb-founded at Mayuri's speech, he then turned around to see that Chad had bowed in piety towards the stunned former 10th Division Captain.
"You don't have to tell me why you're like Ichigo right now. Just take me to him, since I found this power thanks to what happened yesterday, I felt that if I'm not there for him once he completes whatever he has to do, then I'm not a good friend to him at all.," Chad asked Isshin in a respective tone of sincere loyalty to Ichigo.
Isshin scratched his head and smiled as he said this to Chad in a reassuring tone-
"You don't have to do that when you're my Ichigo's best friend. I guess I can make a quick stop at my hat wearing friend's little shop, in case some punks try to mess with him."
Mayuri then widened his eyes and said something alarming-
"While he was fighting Kenpachi, I observed his Spiritual Pressure, it was almost the same as that of a Gikon Soul...a stand in for the original, except slightly different...this boy we saw...was just a clone...Good gracious, the elite have gone dim if something like this escaped their notice."
Isshin and Chad became shocked with horror with what he meant by those words and decided to immediately head to the Urahara Shop.
Ichigo, I wonder if you know this about me. That I have a lot of thoughts on my future and I've thought hard about it. I want to be a teacher... I also want to be an astronaut... and also make my own cake shop... I want to go to the sweets bakery and say 'I want one of everything'... the thing I want most of all...I knew from the day I met you the night we lost our loved ones, you'd be the one for me. So I'm going to make sure you're happy doing what you want always want- what two contrasting ideals you strive for.
On hand you said once that "I want to protect a mountain-load of people."
Since I've healed you from...well death, I've been hearing a voice say something to me while I was healing you, it told me this as a totally opposite way of thinking than what you'd usually say...
"Deep, deep within our body lies the honed instinct to kill, and slaughter our enemies! You're going to have those pure, base instincts awakened to in order to survive when the logic that comes from your brain doesn't work on those you can't beat with a sheathed sword! Once you do, you'll be in eternal bliss."
It was surprising to hear that darker side of yourself, but I accept that its also apart of what you are as well. As someone who wants to be with you from now on, I need to satisfy both those needs if I want to stand by your side.
I should be there soon to give Ichigo what is needed to make him strong enough to wake up both sides of yourself in order to win the battles ahead.
While Kenpachi's immense full powered Spiritual Pressure had initially disturbed the entire group in the Dojo room earlier , there was a stand-off between the two groups. Ichigo, Lisa, Love and Hiyori were hesitant to strike these individuals.
The group was extremely diverse crowd that seemed to be from different cultures and backgrounds that clashed with one another, but still were apart of the same group.
A tiny African girl with large black pupils, a fluffy black afro with an orange headband and an orange poncho with her legs covered with orange rings sticking out. She tried to be intimidating, but her attempts were met with bafflement as to why she was here in the first place.
On her right was a tall man with a hidden muscular physique. He had short bowl cut black hair, a short thick black beard around his chin and cheeks and a black Cross fleury tattoo beneath his chin. He initially wore a black cloak, with a large scarf around his neck and a large brimmed hat, with a wide shade and with a feather in it. He carried a holy bible in his hands. At this moment however, he had discarded the cloak to reveal a black suit and a navy blue dress shirt with an orange tie and brown leather shoes. He seemed to the leader of this group according to what the four felt from his odd Spiritual Pressure and easily the most dangerous due to his more polite demeanor.
There were a trio that Ichigo and the others tried to ignore- a shaggy blonde man with dark sunglasses wearing a modified Japanese monk robes that reveals his bare legs, a similar sunglasses wearing man with neck-length black hair and stylish green pants to his modified monk robes. They carried a modified shakujō microphone and a reddish pink Biwa modified to be an electric guitar and wore white tabi socks with brown straw sandals. The one in the middle had a unique hairstyle, with his hair split into two spikes pointing upwards, had a mustache divided into two thin points and a pointed beard. His attire consisted of a long black coat with an exaggerated extended collar worn over black pants and black boots. Ichigo was disgusted on the two monk figure's blatant mockery of the temple garbs that he would occasionally see on monks in the temple he'd sometimes visit while the other three just saw them as eccentric fools. This was significantly better than the outright villainous looking man in the black/red cloak, he was treated like he didn't exist.
The one behind the dual spiked fellow was a tall, broad shouldered man of Romanian origin with black pants, a black vest,a pair of tall black boots and gloves with gold lining, with a white shirt beneath. He had spiky blonde hair in a triangular shape on each side of his head and two big strands on each side of his face. He also wore a huge black hair with dual collars with golden lining. He carried a golden rapier that he sheathed on his pants. He would occasionally give nasty glares to the unfortunate red collared man who seemed very nervous when the blonde did so. In spite of this trait, he was seen by Ichigo and the others as a big threat.
The one to the right of the African child was a yellow Lego mini-figure with narrow tiny black pupil eyes that peered from the eyeholes to confirm that this was in fact a living person. Ichigo and the others were not sure what to make of this odd dwarf sized individual that seemed to belong to a toy line rather than fighting them.
The second biggest of the group was a very obese Chinese man, with very long, thin eyelashes as well as an equally long fu manchu mustache. He was shirtless with his large gut with an odd fiery red trident/cloud like tattoo exposed, and wore black kung fu pants and black fung fu sandals, with a white obi sash tied around his waist, grey armbands, and wore a pair of black round sunglasses that covered his eyes. He wore a Gold Chines Gong on his back with a black strap. Ichigo initially gave a glare to him and the largest member of the group present with disdain as he thought them as push-overs until Love gave a look to not underestimate them due to their size.
Speaking of which, the largest was a man in a football player like uniform with spikes on the helmet as well as his knee caps, white boots with white laces and white trousers. His upper body was completely bare save for a pair of blue chest plates and spiked red shoulder plates. He had stars on his white gloves and wore a cape with patterns similar to the American flag. He had a golden neck bracer that made him seem less human. On a second glance, he seemed to be rather dangerous to deal with according to Ichigo, though he found it odd that an American was here.
Between the Chinese man and the giant football themed giant, was an Arabian themed man with white Arabian robes, concealing his face and head with a white turban and veil. He has green armbands, a sash on his waist, and a glass jewel medium in his right palml, and wore a pair of black sandals on his feet. Lisa saw him as the likely the 2nd strongest after the man with the holy book.
On the furtherest end of the group was a fairly tall man with a Mexican sarape, hiding his face with a sombrero, scarf and jet goggles. He also wore long black boots, with a knee plate saying "Hao", long black with red pipe-like gloves, with knuckle plates that have "Hao" written on them as well. This dark attire was decorated with bones and a skull on his scarf, and wore a brown guitar on his back with a black strap. He seemed to the one that had the least enthusiasm being in this room, as if he were doubting his reasons for fighting according to Love.
The trio of girls at the the other end of the group were three young women that made Ichigo fluster upon seeing their very promiscuous attire.
The first seemed to be the eldest, with long blue hair with three green hair clips on one long bang and three on the other that each framed her face. She wore a pair of goggles under her neck, a black sleeveless short shirt that exposed her midriff, black fingerless gloves with blue lego shaped lining at the top with the words "Hao" written on them, a long camouflage shirt tied around her waist that showed some of her slender legs, black knee length boots that had the same lining pattern as the gloves. She had a stern, yet bored expression on her face as she smoked her single cigarette.
The second was a blond preteen girl with knee-length pigtails tied with black ribbons with white lace lining. Her gloomy face had creepy green iris eyes with a half awake expression. Her attire consisted of a black midriff exposing short shirt with a pointed collar, a similarly colored mini shirt with white lacing, knee-length boots and arm bands with a Lego shaped protrusions with the words "Hao" on them. She blew a kiss to Ichigo before resuming her gloomy expression to his wide eyed shock. She held a creepy cowboy style doll with a left eye dangling from its socket and carrying a long silver gun.
The third one was a dark orange haired preteen girl with spiky pigtails and perky purple iris eyes. Her attire consisted of a black long cape with an upturned collar adorned with a cartoony skull mask that showed her midriff of her likely naked upper torso to Ichigo's dread. She wore white puffy pants that ending at her knees, black shoes with orange tied laces and black fingerless gloves. She held a light brown broom in her left hand. She waved cheerfully at Ichigo and gave him a wink that made him nervous.
The next two were ones that the entire group found irritating, the first was a man with black Egyptian style eyeliner around his narrow eyes, a long black goatee similar to the chin decoration worn by Egyptian Pharaoh's, black curly neck length hair and a long nose that resembled that of Pinocchio. His attire consisted of a golden suit that with brass colored hieroglyphic patterns adorned all over it, with a magenta dress shirt and white tie underneath it, and black rectangular shoes. He seemed to have a vain expression that made Ichigo want to punch him before remembering that if he was here, he was likely to be strong.
The last one was a preteen boy with short, brown hair cut in a similar fashion to medieval pageboy and smug gray iris eyes. His attire consisted of a black coat with gold lining and white cuffs, a black vest, a white dress shirt, a red sash around his waist, black pants, and black shoes. He had a smug and conceited expression on his face, as if he falsely believed that he was the strongest of the group.
Ichigo Kurosaki. High School Student now a Soul Reaper in Training. Age: 15...I am about to fight some weirdoes fighting for this Hao guy., Ichigo thought with annoyance. Love, Lisa and Hiyori also shared Ichigo's sentiment once they saw the odd member group as a whole, though still taking them as serious threats.
"Lord Hao may have been taken out of action. But, we'll make sure that you don't become a threat to him in the future.," said the brown haired pageboy looking youth in an arrogant tone. The group then laughed loudly as if they were in on a joke that the boy wasn't are of.
"What's so funny?!," He asked furiously to the one in the Arabian garb. The latter looked at him with a cryptic stare of intimidation.
"...Ashil, you are a fool...That was merely an shikigami made to be an exact copy of Lord Hao, but with far lesser strength. In fact...He's been here this whole time like the wind itself, you're the weakest of us for a reason.," said the one with the turban with a narrow gaze.
Ichigo then noticed a poncho wearing boy with dark brown hair that reached his waist at its right side- the one known as Hao Asakura along with an invisible head of a giant entity that he could not see. The Visored immediately turned around and became tense from the immense Spiritual Pressure he was currently exuding from his person.
"Captain Blaise will likely figure out that I never fought in the grassland in the first place, as I used a shikigami to fight in my stead. I used it as a distraction as I searched for you in this humble underground training ground and finally located you. I just had to see you again...Yhwach the XXIX...or should I call you Ichigo Kurosaki, now that you've grown up since the last time I saw you?," Hao told Ichigo with a half shadowed face and white iris eyes of villainous intent.
"Y-What?The hell are you talking about you brat!?," Ichigo responded in a grouchy tone as he punched Hao in the punch with his free hand to the opposing group's anger and the Visored's shock.
"Well, it seems that you don't remember me, you haven't awaken as Yhwach yet. Then I'll say this to the shell you currently call Ichigo.," Hao replied as he rubbed his head with a laid-back tone.
"...Searched through...did you kill them?!," Ichigo asked with aggressive concern with a furrowed brow.
"They were too small to be of consequence to bother destroying. So I just breezed into this room and waited for my colleagues and yourselves to arrive.," Hao responded with a cunning expression with a raised right eyebrow.
"What do mean now that I've grown up?," Ichigo asked with increasing fury in his words.
"Let's just say I happened to see your tragedy upon your mother's demise...that of your predecessor, Yhwach the XXVIII...or maybe Masaki would be more appropriate?" Hao replied in a malicious tone of calm dissonance that caused Ichigo to become furious. A feral and now extremely ecstatic voice then echoed in the room that made Ichigo forget about his angered interrogation with the boy in front of him.
"So I finally get to meet you. I'm sick of waitin...Masked Fighter?"
Hao looked to the side with a smirk as he felt the incoming Spiritual Pressure. Ichigo hallucinated that a black skeleton was holding a blade to his neck for a breath moment.
"Good, I'll face the winner then, if you both manage to beat my followers first...or you just going to go at it like animals...either way, I'm going o be entertained for a little while.," Hao said with a dry sense of humor with an undertone of mockery.
Ichigo looked ahead with a single sweat bead of dread...and somewhere deep in his subconscious...anticipation as his smile grinned on its own to his surprise.
Chapter 32: The Immortal Man
